The open ended survey question explores qualitative, in-depth aspects of a particular topic or issue. It gives the person a chance to respond in detail. Although open questions provide a direct look into a person's thoughts, don't overuse them. Open questions are time-consuming and require more effort. You might accidentally lower your number of responses.
A great way to incorporate an open question is through the "other" option of multiple-choice questions. Add an open ended textbox after your multiple-choice options to capture each user's response to "other". For example, you ask a person's favorite color and include options for orange, green, blue, and "other." For the respondents whose favorite color is not present as one of the options, they can select "other" option and enter their answer.
Essay questions can also participate in consensus-building exercises. You can enable all answers to be displayed for panelists from the question properties widow (Display All Answers Tab).
Essay questions do not limit the number of characters the panelist can enter.
